I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel - not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. (Galatians 1:6-7 ESV)

A well-known preacher of the United States was asked to say a few words to a gathering in an open-air meeting. At the close of his address, an atheist stepped up to him and challenged him to a debate, assuring him that he would bear all the expense of renting the hall and advertising. The preacher said, "I accept on one condition: When you bring with you fifty people who have been helped by your philosophy, I am ready because I will bring you hundreds who will testify to the transformation this Gospel has wrought in their lives." Needless to say, the challenger departed and never returned.

There is only one life-changing gospel. There is only one gospel that brings life and peace to the sinner.​

Paul was astonished – John MacArthur, in his commentary on Galatians stated the following: "The most destructive dangers to the church have never been atheism, pagan religions, or cults that openly deny the authority and inerrancy of Scripture, but rather supposedly Christian movements that accept just enough biblical truth that their unscriptural doctrines seem insignificant and harmless" (MacArthur, 1987. p.14.).

There are a lot of false gospels:

1. Works Based Gospel – You can earn your way to heaven!2. Self-Improvement Gospel – 5 Steps to a better you!3. Prosperity Gospel – God saved you to make you rich.4. Social Justice Gospel – Creates unbiblical categories and classes among God’s people and places secular progressive politics over scriptural authority.5. Perverted Grace Gospel – Do anything you want! “Get out of jail free card!”6. Interfaith Gospel – Every religion basically gets it right and we just need to take a piece of each one and blend them together. There is after all not any real objective truth.7. Universal Gospel – God will just save everyone in the end.

In all of these false gospels, they deny…- Original sin, man’s utter sinfulness, the holiness of God, the righteous judgment of God against sin, the right of God to demand payment for sin, the authority of Scripture and they go with what man thinks rather than what God has said, all men born in Adam and under condemnation of sin, the work of Christ and His atonement for sin, the power of the resurrection, one Savior, the peace that comes from having salvation in Christ, free justification.

Martin Luther in his commentary on the book of Galatians states:

"St. Paul wrote this epistle because, after his departure from the Galatian churches, Jewish-Christian fanatics moved in, who perverted Paul’s gospel of man’s free justification by faith in Christ Jesus.

The world bears the gospel a grudge because the gospel condemns the religious wisdom of the world. Jealous for its own religious views, the world, in turn, charges the gospel with being a subversive and licentious doctrine, offensive to God and man, a doctrine to be persecuted as the worst plague on earth.

As a result, we have this paradoxical situation: The gospel supplies the world with the salvation of Jesus Christ, peace of conscience, and every blessing. Just for that, the world abhors it" (Luther, 1535).

This world fueled by Satan and under his system hates the gospel of Jesus Christ and it will hate anyone who preaches it and certainly those who have been transformed by it. Martin Luther is a true story of this gospel transformation.

In a short E-book entitled, “Life Of Martin Luther” by Diana Kleyn & Joel Beeke it states about Luther:

"Luther tried to win God’s favor by praying and fasting often. He whipped himself and lived in a cell that had no heat. He slept very little and recited many prayers. He tried to think of every sin he had committed so that he could do penance for them all, but that did not make him feel any better. He did not know about the love of God. Rather, whenever he heard about God, he was afraid. Luther’s trust was not in the Savior, but in saints and angels, good works, doing penance, and paying for his own sins. Luther, along with other Roman Catholics, had been taught that God was so holy that He could only be approached through the saints. No one had told him that the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ alone can satisfy God’s justice.

Most monks and other clergy members (like Luther) of the Roman Catholic Church did not think much about their souls. They obeyed the rules because it was required of them by the church. But most often, their obedience was done out of a sense of duty. In addition, it is sad to say that most of the clergy lived a wicked life, even though they professed to serve God. They seemed pious during religious ceremonies, but their lifestyles were full of sin and injustice" (Kleyn & Beeke, 2009. p.5.)

How could this be? It is because religion does not save and it can not transform the human heart. The greatest need of man is to be born again or born from above and have his heart of stone removed and replaced with a heart of flesh and a heart that truly loves God and obeys Him out of that love.

God does not desire a religious or ritualistic heart but a broken and repentant heart that comes from one who knows how truly sinful they are and how desperately they need a Savior.

Martin Luther is quoted as saying, “God has surely promised His grace to the humbled, that is, to those who mourn over and despair of themselves.”

The book on Luther’s life goes on to say:

"Unlike the religious monks and clergy of Luther’s day, the Holy Spirit would not allow him to be like the others. For that reason, he could find no peace in the monastery and its rituals.

When Luther went to Rome in 1510, his eyes were opened. In a chapel connected with one of the main churches in Rome, there is a flight of white marble steps called the Scala Sancta, which means “holy stairs.” The priests claimed that these stairs were the very same stairs Jesus climbed when He went from Pilate’s judgment hall to Calvary and that an angel transferred them from Jerusalem to Rome. They also informed the people that whoever went up those stairs on his knees would have all his sins forgiven. Tradition says that Luther went up those stairs on his knees, praying and kissing each step. How Luther hoped to find peace for his troubled soul! But his hopes were cruelly dashed. He did not understand why he could not find peace. The Lord had a reason for all of his unrest, however. He was showing Luther his own sin, the wickedness of the church, and the necessity of finding salvation only in Christ.

Finally, when studying Romans, Luther read, “The just shall live by faith.” and it changed everything for Luther. He no longer tried to pay for his own sins, but he trusted in His Savior. Now he wanted to obey God, not out of fear, but out of love" (ibid, p.7.).

Martin Luther had found the true gospel. He had found the gospel that saves. The gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul, an apostle - not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead - and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (Galatians 1:1-5 ESV)

Notice that in contrast to all false gospels, that in contrast to all that man attempts to conjure up, in contrast to all that Martin Luther had tried in vain, the true gospel is by Jesus Christ and God our Father by his grace and mercy. It is not by man or through man or accomplished by man. Jesus Christ himself gave himself for our sins and we contribute nothing to it. Salvation is completely of God and by God. Our Savior is unlike every other religious leader that has ever lived in that He is a risen Savior and a risen Lord!

John MacArthur points out that grace and peace are two of the most beautiful words in regards to salvation. He states in his commentary about Galatians that grace is the source of our salvation and peace is the result (MacArthur, p.5.)

​God Himself gave Himself for our sins. He left the throne of heaven and entered into His very own creation so that He could voluntarily give His life to make atonement for our sin. Now, through the power of the Holy Spirit in regeneration and our subsequent repentance and faith in the only Savior, we will have life eternal in Jesus Christ. We will no longer be in Adam but in Christ. Our salvation is full and free and eternal and it comes only through one gospel.

​The most important thing that we can do today as Christians and in our churches is to preach the one true gospel. We need to refute the false gospels and not allow anything or anyone to distort the clear teachings of Scripture. When we obey God and live for Him we are able to stand back and boldly proclaim, "Whoa! Look at what He did!" because the message of the one true gospel is to point to the cross and boldly proclaim, "Look at what He did!"

Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, 'I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.' (Acts 13:21-22 ESV)

"The Dash" by Linda Ellis

I read of a man who stood to speak at a funeral of a friend. He referred to the dates on the tombstone from the beginning to the end.

He noted that first came the date of birth and spoke of the following date with tears, but he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time they spent alive on earth and now only those who loved them know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own, the cars, the house, the cash. What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard; are there things you’d like to change? For you never know how much time is left that still can be rearranged.

To be less quick to anger and show appreciation more and love the people in our lives like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect and more often wear a smile… remembering that this special dash might only last a little while.​So when your eulogy is being read, with your life’s actions to rehash, would you be proud of the things they say about how you lived your dash?

​Everyone has a year in which they were born and unless Jesus Christ returns before, we will all have a year in which we will die. What we see described in this poem and what I would like to submit to you today is that what is far more important than the year of your birth or the year of your death is the dash in the middle. It is the years that you spend living that make far more impact and have the greatest potential to gain ground for the Kingdom and bring glory to God.

What are you doing with your dash?

It should come as no surprise that just like Prayer from last week, to have a Christian legacy in your life, it requires devotion. A Christian legacy is rooted in a person’s heart. A heart pointed towards God and that loves God will have a legacy of pursuing and obeying God even when still fighting with sin and enduring the trials of life.

We learn a lot of information about King David in the Bible and specifically in the Psalms that he wrote. His life was a complete open book in a lot of ways for us all to see and learn from. He had many victories and great success and David also had failures and great sin.

Yet throughout all the ups and downs, throughout all the success and failures, David had his heart pointed towards God. David was a man who had a true and deep heart-filled desire to seek God’s will and to do God’s will.

How could this be? How could someone who had such great sin in their life as we will see in a minute also be called a man after God’s own heart and have such a great Christian legacy?

Well, you see, to have a Christian legacy, one does not have to walk in sinless perfection. You see, just like David, we are sinners saved by God’s grace. It takes a lifetime of devotion and continual pursuit of God to see true and lasting sanctification come to one’s life and it is that sanctification, that devotion, that love for God, that effort in walking in righteousness that creates a lasting and strong Christian legacy.

No matter where you find yourself, no matter what you have done and no matter what you are doing as long as you have breath in your body, there is still time to turn it all around and start building a Christian legacy for others to learn from. The key to a godly, Christian legacy is to display and to walk in the same characteristics that David had.

1. A Heart Of True Faith

When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, "Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine." And Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth." But David said to Saul, "Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God." (1 Samuel 17:31-36 ESV)

​David had an unquestioned and unwavering faith in God. It was a faith that helped him conquer many giants in his life and a really large literal giant named Goliath. David believed God even if no one else did. David had faith in the God of Israel even if it would cost him personally. David had an unwavering faith based on who God is and based on what God had done for him. David knew that God would deliver because of who God is and not because of who David was.

2. A Heart Of True Commitment To God's Word

Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD! Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways! You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!​(Psalm 119:1-5 ESV)

David had a deep love for and commitment to God’s Word. David knew that it was not only important to read and study God’s Word but that one must be committed to it and submitted to it in all their ways. ​Notice that in Psalm 119:1-5 he states that the one who walks in the law of the LORD is blessed! Also, the one who does not walk in the law of the LORD is not blessed. God also commands that we diligently keep His commandments which means that we need to be intentional, consistent, and have great focus and effort put into our study and obedience of God's Word.

3. A Heart Of True Thanksgiving

David was a man who possessed true thanksgiving towards God. Think back to what Paul says in Colossians 4:2.

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. (Colossians 4:2 ESV)

​Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude​ of thanksgiving. (Colossians 4:2 NASB)

It says to "Devote" or "Continue steadfastly" in prayer, "keeping alert" or "being watchful" in it with thanksgiving. ​No matter where David found himself in life, he was thankful. Whether he was on a mountaintop or in a valley, he expressed thanksgiving.

I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!

I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. (Psalm 34:1-6 ESV)

Notice how David makes it clear that there are distinctions and differences between those who trust the LORD and those who do not. It takes one who is humble of heart to be glad in boasting of the LORD's works because the prideful man will be concerned in promoting himself and what he has done. Also, David makes it clear that the LORD saved him out of his troubles. It is the LORD that David looked to for salvation, both of his soul, and his life when surrounded by enemies.

4. A Heart Of True Repentance

David was also a man that had a true heart of repentance. David was a man that fell hard into sin when he took his focus off God.

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. (2 Samuel 11:1 ESV)

Notice that David was not where he was supposed to be. He remained when he was supposed to be out in battle. While it is not recorded what the reason for David remaining behind, the fact of the matter is that being somewhere other than where one is supposed to be is a good recipe for sinful behavior. This is why integrity is so vitally important. We need to mean what we say, we need to be where we are supposed to be, and we need to have consistent character.

2 Samuel chapter 11 further records David’s great sin with Bathsheba. It all got set into motion when David was not where he was supposed to be. He was not in obedience and it brought sin and destruction to his life. He ends up sleeping with Bathsheba, he lies and has Uriah murdered and then takes Bathsheba as his wife. She got pregnant by David and they lost their child.

​Nathan comes in chapter 12 and rebukes David for his sin and David responds correctly.

David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." ​(2 Samuel 12:13a ESV)

​David correctly realizes his sin and also correctly recognizes that his sin is against the LORD. All sin is against God because He is the only Being in existence that is perfectly holy, righteous, and just. Because of this fact, God is the only Being that has the right to command His creatures, and the right to be offended when sinned against. So, David rightly concludes that he has in fact sinned against the LORD.

​Then in Psalm 51, we get David's great prayer of repentance to God because of his sin. Look at what a heart of true repentance looks like.

​David asks for mercy from God. He asks to be washed thoroughly from his sin. David knew that God is a God of mercy and grace and that God responds mercifully to the truly repentant heart which not only calls its sin what it is but also is truly sorrowful over that sin.

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. (Psalm 51:3-4 ESV)

​All sin is only against God. David knew this. David also makes it clear that he knew for a fact what his sin was. Many try to hide or run from their sin and in some very prideful ways even attempt to justify or excuse their sin as if it were not sin at all. This is a dangerous game to play considering it is sin against the rightful judge of all things.

When a Christian is in sin and giving in to the desires of the flesh, they know that they have sinned and they will feel the Holy Spirit's conviction. As much as one may attempt to justify, excuse, or ignore their sin, it will always be in their mind's eye and ever before them until they have correctly dealt with it in repentance and confession. Notice also that David makes it clear that God is blameless in His judgment meaning that when God determines that something is sin, there is nothing that can reverse or override His judgment because He is the only true and right judge.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Case me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:10-12 ESV)

​David asks God for a clean heart which is free from the stain of his sin. David knew that his sin had affected his walk with the LORD and that it had affected his heart towards God. David also knew that unconfessed sin and unrepentant sin has consequences. So, in asking for forgiveness for his sin, David also seeks to see the joy of salvation returned to him. Note that David says that it is the "joy of your salvation" meaning God's salvation. Suffice it to say that David was obviously a monergist in that he knew and understood that salvation is all of God. The true joy of salvation is walking in obedience to Almighty God who saves us by His abundant grace and mercy.

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.​(Psalm 51:16-17 ESV)

God does not desire ritual or tradition. He wants a broken heart of repentance and a heart that loves Him supremely. When our relationship with God is right and we have a clean heart before God then we will as it says in verse 13, "teach transgressors your ways" because only in walking in obedience can we truly serve God and live out the Great Commission.

Our sin destroys so much in our lives and we like David need to always be repentant for our sin and seek to be restored to right standing before God. Now, thanks to the doctrine of justification in regards to salvation, our eternal standing before God is never in question once we are justified. However, our fellowship with God, our effectiveness for God, our ongoing progressive sanctification and more are affected by our sin and a heart that has truly been made white by the blood of Jesus will desire to be repentant of any sin that enters our life.

So, I ask once more in light of everything we have learned from David, what are you doing with your dash? If you desire to have a Christian legacy, what are you doing with your dash? No matter what your age or status, no matter how much sin has been in your life or even how many years you may have wasted not serving God, if you repent of your sin and get right with the Lord you can then start walking in obedience and serving God and begin building a Christian legacy where people can look at your life and say that you had a heart for God.

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison. (Colossians 4:2-3 ESV)

There is a story about a man who encountered a great deal of trouble while flying his little airplane. He called the control tower and said, “Pilot to tower, I am 300 miles from the airport, six hundred feet above the ground, and I am out of fuel. I am descending rapidly. Please advise. Over.” The control tower responded, “Tower to pilot. Please repeat after me, ‘Our Father, Who art in heaven...’”

Sometimes in life, prayer will be all you have or all you have left but in reality, prayer should be our first choice and not our last resort. A healthy prayer life requires devotion. I want to take a look at some of the aspects of the devotion that is required.

1. Ongoing Devotion

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with anattitude of ​thanksgiving. (Colossians 4:2 NASB)

​At the top of this blog post, I utilized the ESV and now here in point #1, I am quoting the NASB for a reason. I want you to see the difference in translations because they bring out different aspects of the meaning of the original language. For example, the NASB translates it "Devote yourselves" and the ESV translates it "Continue steadfastly." Both translations do a good job of conveying the meaning of what Paul was teaching here. Our attitude towards prayer should be one of devotion and something that we are consistent and steadfast in. It is a word also meaning to persist in or persevere in. One who is devoted and continuing steadfastly in prayer will show a divine strength that comes from Christ and helps us to prevail in prayer despite any challenges of circumstances that seek to distract or take us away from our devoted prayer life.

Notice also that it doesn’t say devote yourselves to prayer if it works, it says DEVOTE YOURSELVES TO PRAYER!

Too many pray with selfish motives. They pray because of what they think they can get out of it. What is worse is that think if they pray enough, or the right way, or use the right words that somehow God will be beholden to them and owe them something. God doesn’t owe you anything but you owe God everything!​

​You pray because you are changed by the prayer and that takes ongoing devotion over a lifetime. You don’t need to be praying for what God can do for you, you need to be praying for how God wants to change you.

2. Watchful Devotion

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of ​thanksgiving. (Colossians 4:2 NASB)

​To keep alert in prayer means to be watchful, be watching, to be awake, be alert, and to be vigilant and active in prayer. It is a present tense verb which means ongoing and continual action which is not to cease. Certainly, this should make us think of 1 Thessalonians 5:17 which states, "Pray without ceasing." This watchful devotion will be keeping close attention for areas that God wants to change, develop, or transform in your life.

​Many Christians can't be bothered to pray once a week much less to "pray without ceasing." In fact, the disciples themselves struggled with the command to continue steadfastly in prayer and to keep alert in doing it.

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. Then He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me."

And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." (Matthew 26:36-41 NASB)

Notice that Jesus' main concern in His prayer was that He be in conformity with the will of God. So much of our prayers are focused on our selves and what we want and what we want God to do for us that we forget that the primary focus of our prayer is to know God's will and to walk in it.

Then, Jesus returns from praying and finds His disciples asleep. He scolds them for not being watchful in their prayer and in this case, it was only 1 hour's time. Jesus notes in verse 41 that for the disciples and in comparison many Christians, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Many Christians fail to devote themselves to prayer and keep alert and be watchful in it because they are not mastering and controlling and overcoming their flesh. They are allowing their sinful flesh to dominate and control them. In order to be watchful in prayer, one must control their flesh and seek God in Spirit and in truth in order that they may be watchful.

3. Thankful Devotion

with an attitude of ​thanksgiving. (Colossians 4:2b NASB)

​An attitude of thanksgiving is an attitude not focused on what you don’t have but on what you do have. It is being contented and thankful for how God has blessed you and being content even if you do not have or receive something you think you want or deserve. We all struggle in our flesh with discontentment and this is something that is overcome when we are devoted to prayer. The verse in Colossians makes it clear that as we continue steadfastly in prayer and are watchful in it meaning not just going through the motions but active in it, that type of prayer life will always produce thanksgiving to God in the heart of the believer.

4. Focused Devotion

Praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned. (Colossians 4:3 NASB)

​Praying that God will provide opportunities for the purposes of Christ is a primary example of a focused devotion in prayer. Notice he wanted to pray for an open door for the Word of God. He wanted an answered prayer to speak forth Christ! When we pray, we are to be praying to see the will of God done in our lives and in the lives of those around us. We are to pray the Bible. We are to be focused on seeing a greater knowledge of truth in us and a greater display of that truth in our life. We need to be focused on God's purposes and God's will when we pray and see ourselves changed and conformed to that perfect will of God.

5. Rewarding Devotion

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that ​He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6 NASB)

God will reward (one who pays wages) to those who diligently seek Him. This means that if you stop seeking self and start seeking God, He will pay out the wages of your efforts. God blesses obedience. He blesses and rewards those who make it their mission to seek God and seek Him diligently and intentionally.

Places where you won’t find GodTradition, idols, status quo, whether the Pastor dresses as you want or does what you want, worrying about worldly matters. Anything that finds its origin in sin or in Satan's schemes or world system is not a place to go seeking for God.

Places where you will find GodIn His Word, in prayer, in service to others, in dying to self, in obedience to His word, in leading by example, being present, walking in holiness.

People say all the time that they want to see revival, they want to see growth, that they want to be close to God. Well, you won't be any closer to God today than you were yesterday if you do not diligently and actively seek Him in His Word and in prayer. If one is not intentional about cultivating a deeper relationship with their Creator based on what He has said in His word, then one should not be surprised when there is zero relationship with the Creator as a result. It takes effort, it takes ongoing devotion, it takes thanksgiving, it takes all of it.

Once a man asked an evangelist “how can we have revival?” The evangelist answered by asking “Do you have a place where you can pray?” “Yes.” the man replied. So, the evangelist said, "I tell you what you need to do. Go to that place where you pray, kneel down there, and draw or make a complete circle around you and pray for God to send revival on everything inside that circle and keep going back there and praying that same prayer until He answers, and then you will have your revival.

​The true path to blessing in any walk of life is to be in submission to God and His Word. To walk in obedience to God’s Word is to bring blessing, growth, and success. To ignore, disobey, or think that you have come up with a better plan or way is to bring decline, an absence of blessing, and destruction.

According to an article by Alex Strauch on Bible.org, "Hurricane Andrew was one of the worse hurricanes to hit the Caribbean Islands and Florida. After the hurricane, news reports witnessed tens of thousands of homes flattened to the ground. As they were filming, they saw one house standing. They went to that house and the owner was cleaning up the front yard. They asked, how is it that your house is standing? He said, I built this house and I followed the Florida state code for hurricanes. If the code called for 12-inch beams, I put 12-inch beams; if it called for a metal brace to the beams, I put a metal brace. I built the house according to the code and the house withstood the hurricane."

​The true path to blessing in any walk of life is to be in submission to God and His Word. To walk in obedience to God’s Word is to bring blessing, growth, and success. To ignore, disobey, or think that you have come up with a better plan or way is to bring decline, an absence of blessing, and destruction. God’s Word is our prescription for life, for marriage, for the church, for the family, for everything. God has His blueprint and we would be wise to be in submission to it.

With the intrusion of secular humanistic thought and a satanic rebellion against God’s ordained authority, God’s standards and God’s blueprint for marriage and even the church is seen as outdated, offensive, “won't’ work,” and just one’s interpretation in many cases. The lack of knowledge and submission to God’s blueprint for specific areas of life has caused great sorrow, decline, and destruction for sure.

The divorce rate among Christians is certainly a result of a lack of submission to God’s ordained blueprint for marriage that we find in His word. There is a path to blessing and there is a path to success in marriage and we would be wise to heed the call of inspired Scripture on the matter.

So many assume that because they stand firm in the political arena on God’s marriage being between one man and one woman, which it is, they assume that they have completed their work and can pat themselves on the back for a job well done. However, that is not all God has said about marriage.

So, what is God’s blueprint? What has God commanded?

1. The Correct Foundation

Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell and great was its fall. (Matthew 7:24-27 NASB)

​Notice in v.24 that it says that one must act on the words that they hear. It is not enough to know what to do but one must do it. The foundation for and the true path to blessing in a Christian marriage begins and ends with obedience to God and His Word. Just like it does in all areas of Christian life. If one does not act on and obey God's Word especially in the area of marriage and has Jesus Christ and God's Word as its foundation, then they will surely be like the man who built his house on the sand and great will be the fall of that marriage.​

Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. (Colossians 3:18 NASB)Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. (Ephesians 5:22 NASB)

​Notice in the underlined portions of the verses above that the willing submission to the leadership of the husband on the part of the wife is to be viewed as ultimately obedience to God. It is "as to the Lord." To be subject to the leadership of the husband is to be in obedience to the Lord and to not be subject to the husband's leadership is to be in defiance to the Lord.

For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. (Ephesians 5:23-24 NASB)

​Christ is the head of the church. The church is under His supreme authority and only His authority because Christ is the One who died for the church to purchase the eternal redemption of His elect people. He is the only Savior of the body, He is the only One who is supreme in authority. In like manner, Ephesians tells us that the wife is to be in subjection to the headship and the authority of the husband.

The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:22-24 NASB)

​One of the ultimate aspects of God's marriage is that it is between only 1 man and 1 woman. There is no other combination of people that can be said to be a God-approved marriage. God created marriage, God designed marriage, and therefore, it is God alone who has authority over and can decide what marriage is and what it should look like. The foundation for marriage begins and ends with God Almighty. The wife is to be joined to her husband and the husband joined to his wife at the command of God.

2. The Correct Roles

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28 NASB)

Spiritually there are no distinctions. Every Christian is an equal among equals spiritually speaking. As Christians, we have the same Savior (Eph. 5:23), we all have the same access to the Savior, we all have the same justification, the same righteousness of Christ, the same adoption into God’s family, and the same future promises of our inheritance.

However, in certain situations and in certain relationships God has prescribed certain roles and certain functions that are to be performed, and in some cases, submitted to. These distinctions in roles and function and authority do not negate our equal standing before God as His children and His elect but do show that God has a plan, He has a structure, He has a blueprint for how certain things are supposed to operate and God expects His people to operate and obey His instruction.

To obey God in these areas brings great blessing. To not obey will not bring blessing for God always blesses obedience to His Word and does not bless disobedience.

Some examples of God’s ordained structure are how He has given governmental authority to world rulers over the people they rule. We are commanded to obey and submit to those who have the rule over us in those roles according to Romans 13:1-3. The only times in which anyone can disobey anyone in a place of authority is if they command something contrary to God’s Word.

God has also given and delegated authority and oversight over His congregations through eldership and pastoral leadership according to 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1:5-9, 1 Peter 5:1-5, several places in Acts and other epistles, etc. God has not prescribed a congregational rule or any democratic process in His Word. He has prescribed shared leadership among biblically qualified elders.

One of the biggest mistakes that churches make today is thinking that the church is of the people, by the people, and for the people; when it is actually of God, by God, and for God.

Churches that are in submission to the Word of God in this area have a solid biblical foundation and will see growth, blessing, success, and will stand firm when hard times come whereas a church that disobeys God’s Word will only see a decline, an absence of blessing and eventual death.

God also has plans and roles for employees and employers to play which we will look at later in Colossians chapter 3. And then finally, He has roles for people to play in marriage and in the home. God has given authority and leadership to the husband over the wife and to parents over the children. The model and blueprint that God uses in the home mirrors the blueprint He uses in the church to a degree and we can learn a lot about the home by studying the church and vice versa.

Wives, be subject to your husbands, as if fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them. (Colossians 3:18-19 NASB)

​We see that the roles in marriage are that the husband is to be the leader and have the authority and oversight over the wife, and the wife is to be subjection to the husband’s leadership.

3. The Correct Execution

​The correct execution of God’s blueprint for marriage involves mutual submission on the part of the husband and the wife.

But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. (Ephesians 5:24 NASB)

​"Be subject" - meaning to place or rank under; relinquish one’s rights – willing submission of one’s self. The wife is not commanded to obey the husband in the same way children are instructed to obey their parents. Because the husband and the wife are spiritually equal, the husband is not to treat his wife as a servant or someone to obey his every command but as someone who deserves his love, care, respect, provision, and protection (MacArthur, p.281). ​The Bible tells the wife to be subject to the husband’s leadership and then the Bible explains what that leadership looks like.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also love the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. (Ephesians 5:25-30 NASB)

The husband’s primary submission to his wife is through his love for her as his wife. Jesus Christ is the ultimate and divine role model for how a husband is to love his wife. Christ gave Himself for the church and husbands should be willing to give themselves for their wife.

Love is action. Whatever is needed a husband will do. He will engage in self-sacrifice, he will protect from sin and harmful behavior. Sometimes doing what is best rather than what is wanted will be needful under the husband’s leadership but the key to the mutual submission is this:

A husband that is correctly loving His wife as Christ loved the church will create a marriage environment where the wife will gladly and willingly submit to the husband’s leadership because, in that leadership, she will find someone that truly is looking out for her needs and nourishing and cherishing her in a biblical way. Any husband that is loving his wife as if it were his own body, there is no woman that would not want to be subject to that kind of leadership and authority.

This means no excuses men! We are to love our wives as Christ loved the church and as we would love our own bodies. God gives us the authority and the leadership that He does because He expects us to love our wives the way He commands us to.

Are there any areas in your marriage that need to be conformed to God’s blueprint?

Are there any areas where you need repentance for not obeying God’s Word in your marriage?

Husbands, we need to love our wives.

Wives, you need to be in subjection to and lovingly following your husband’s leadership.

Because it is in being obedient to God’s Word that we find the true path to blessing in Christian marriage.

So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. (Colossians 3:12-13 NASB)

​Everybody loves Superman. Superman is great! He can fly, he can bounce bullets off of him, he can leap tall buildings in a single bound, he can apparently fly so fast around the earth that he actually moves time backward, he can even take a direct hit from a nuclear bomb and keep going. Everybody loves Superman.

We tend to think Super-Christians are those with “super-powers” that we don’t have. They pray the best, or they teach better than everyone else. We look towards those with the largest ministries or those who are on TV as being a Super-Christian while we are just normal and common in comparison. In our minds, these Super-Christians can fly through the heavens, bounce Satan’s arrows off of them with ease, and leap tall theological hurdles with a single bound while even taking a direct hit from a sin-filled nuclear bomb and keep right on down the path of sanctification. Everybody loves a Super-Christian!

However, the Bible paints quite a different picture when describing what the Christian Life looks like. According to Paul what it takes to be a Super-Christian has nothing to do with who we are and whether we stand out from the crowd It has nothing to do with whether we have particular gifts or abilities, it has nothing to do with how large or successful our particular ministries may be. It has everything to do with how Christ-like we are. It has everything to do with how much like our Super-Savior, Jesus Christ we are.

​So, let’s look at Colossians 3:12-13 and consider the characteristics of a Super-Christian and how to be one.

​1. A Super-Christian has a heart of compassion.

A Super-Christian who has put on a heart of compassion will have pity, mercy, sympathy, and a deep feeling about someone’s difficulty or misfortune. They will long to see people’s needs met and will want to see them met fully as much as possible even if it means sacrifice on their part to meet it.

​Many people are “need-spotters,” but Christians are “need-meeters.” We desire to see needs met and not just spotted. If someone’s genuine need does not move you in your heart, then something is wrong.

2. A Super-Christian is kind.

A Super-Christian will demonstrate goodness, uprightness; kindness that is serviceable; it is useful kindness. It is meeting real needs and avoiding harshness. This is a kindness that is equally concerned about your neighbors as you are about yourself. It is one thing to say you are concerned or to say that you love or care for someone but this God-centered kindness is one that actually does something about it. It is not a sideline kindness.

3. A Super-Christian is humble.

A Super-Christian that is humble will have lowliness of mind and will be modest. This is an inside-out virtue meaning that what is in the heart will show on the outside in the actions of a person and it will be a genuine characteristic. Someone that is truly humble is so because they have compared themselves to the Lord and have stacked themselves up against God's standard and God's holiness, and realize just how utterly short they fall (Rom. 3:23).

​Someone that is prideful will compare themselves to others because in doing so it is far easier to find someone that you are “better than.” Self-exaltation is not a mark of the Super-Christian. To be Super you must be humble. To be humble is to have an absence of “self-love.”

4. A Super-Christian is gentle.

​A Super-Christian will be meek and mild. This is a person that would rather suffer an injury or setback than to inflict one and they certainly will not act out of a motive for retaliation or in seeking some form of retribution. This Christian does not look for an opportunity to put others down. They would rather see themselves harmed than to harm.​

5. A Super-Christian is patient.

The Super-Christian that is patient will be long-suffering, showing restraint and tolerance. This is the exact opposite of resentment and revenge and a desire to seek retribution through unchecked and improper anger. Patience is a learned behavior. It does not come naturally and it will take the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit to produce. You will no doubt notice that many if not all of these are fruits of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians chapter 5. This is no mistake.

6. A Super-Christian will bear with others.

​A Super-Christian, because of their patience will bear with one another meaning to “hold up” and as a present tense verb, it means to “keep bearing up” with others. In spite of any persecutions, injuries, complaints, a Super-Christian will not sinfully retaliate.​

7. A Super-Christian will forgive others.

​A Super-Chrisitan will be gracious and show favor to others. They will pardon and extend gracious favor freely without consideration of merit. Super-Christians will freely forgive as the Lord forgave us. Super-Christians will not hold back grace and forgiveness out of spiteful and angry emotions. A Super-Christian will extend forgiveness, even if the offending party does not repent as this is essential to the Christian life. It is an act of faith on our part knowing that God will ultimately have the last word and be the only righteous judge on all things.

​​Why would Christians behave in these ways? Why do Super Christians forgive and bear with others and are humble and gracious and compassionate?

BECAUSE IT’S DIFFERENT THAN THE WORLD!!!

​We are God’s saints, his holy ones. We are called out and separated from the world. It is in being Christ-like that we are most effective in our testimony for Christ.

To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; and we toil, working with out own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now. (1 Corinthians 4:11-13 NASB)

​Why do we do what we do?

BECAUSE OF THE GOSPEL!

​The world is watching and they need to see Christ in us!

​Clark Kent when he goes to change into Superman will put back his shirt and underneath is his Superman suit. For the Christian, what lies beneath, what is on the inside is not a Super suit but a Super Savior and this world needs to see Christ in us!

A renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. (Colossians 3:11 NASB)

​"A young man was eager to grow in His Christian life. He got a piece of paper and made a list of all the things he would do for God. He wrote down the things he would give up, the places he would go to minister and the areas of ministry he would enter. He was excited. He took that list to the church and put it on the altar.

He thought he would feel joy, but instead, he felt empty. So, he went home and started adding to his list. He wrote down more things he would do and wouldn’t do. He took the longer list and put it on the altar, but still, he felt nothing.

He went to a wise, old pastor, told him the situation and asked for help. The pastor said, “Take a blank sheet of paper. Sign your name at the bottom. Put that on the altar.” The young man did, and then peace came to his heart." - R. B. Ouellette.

​The True Nature Of The Christian Life Is Total Transformation. Believers in Jesus Christ do not receive or add something new, they become somebody new.

​The key to the story about this young man and what was causing him trouble is he was failing to understand that the Christian life, that salvation means total transformation. As long as his life was defined by things he would do and things he would give up, he would never know the true joy and peace of the Christian life. This is why the Pastor told him to put his name on a piece of paper and put that on the altar because it was symbolic of the fact that for the Christian when Christ died, we died.

Sanctification means to set apart, to make holy. There is both a definitional and experiential aspect to our sanctification and to our transformation.

1. Transformation Defined

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20 NASB)

​Our identity is not in what we do but who we are and who we are is alive in Christ. What we do is a result of our identity in Christ and is not definitional to our identity. It is because of our transformed identity that we now perform works of righteousness but even the very righteousness we do is Christ's righteousness working in us (2 Cor. 5:21), for we died and we now live in Him.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB)

​Salvation is not adding something to our life. It is not an improving on or perfecting of something that is already there. It is a literal new creation. It is a total transformation. Old things and the old self has passed away because it was crucified with Christ and behold, new things have come!

For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15 NASB)

John MacArthur said, “It’s not the perfection of one’s life but the direction of a life that provides evidence of regeneration.” Those who have been saved, those who now live in Christ will not live for themselves. They will die to self and live for the One who raised them to life and created them in righteousness.

That, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of ​God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Ephesians 4:22-24 NASB)

The new self is created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. It is made in the likeness of God. The new self or new nature is not something added to or placed on top of the old self of the old nature, it is a replacement of the old nature.

Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him - a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. (Colossians 3:9-11 NASB)

​We only have 1 nature. It is an unbiblical cliché to say that we have two natures at war with one another. It is unbiblical to say that we still have a sin nature. We are a new creation in Christ and we have put off the old self and have put on the new self in salvation.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. (Galatians 5:16-17 NASB)

​We have 1 nature and we live by the Spirit but we reside in old bodies. We reside in sinful humanness. We reside in sinful flesh that has not been perfected and transformed yet. Our nature and our spirit have been transformed but our flesh has not. This is why we have a spiritual war. This is why we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against powers and wicked forces.

Our flesh sets its desire against the Spirit and this is why we have difficulty and trial in doing what our nature which is created in Christ wants to do and that is please God; something our previous nature, our old self could not do.

2. Transformation Experienced

John MacArthur said, “Possession of the new self does bring the believer new life, but not instant spiritual maturity. The battle against the flesh will go on throughout this life. It is God’s plan to make believers like Jesus Christ" (MacArthur, p.150).

We are being daily sanctified experientially as we grow into a true knowledge and grow in greater submission to Christ and His Word.

​One of my favorite stories comes from a man who used to be in our church. He and his wife were close friends of our family, but they have now moved to another part of the country. We really miss their joyful presence.

When he was a youth worker many years ago, he attended a church that had Scandinavian roots. Being a rather forward-looking and creative young man, he decided he would show the youth group a missionary film. We’re talking simple, safe, black-and-white religious-oriented movie. That film projector hadn’t been off an hour before a group of the leaders in the church called him in and asked him about what he had done. They asked, “Did you show the young people a film?” In all honesty, he responded, “Well, yeah, I did.” “We don’t like that,” they replied. Without trying to be argumentative, the youth worker reasoned, “Well, I remember that at the last missionary conference, our church showed slides—”

One of the church officers put his hand up signaling him to cease talking. Then, in these words, he emphatically explained the conflict: “If it’s still, fine. If it moves, sin!” You can show slides, but when they start movin’, you’re gettin’ into sin.

Jack Deere, touching on the same subject is quoted as saying,

​"The essence of legalism is trusting in the religious activity rather than trusting in God. It is putting our confidence in a practice rather than in a Person. And without fail this will lead us to love the practice more than the Person."

​In both the story and the quote, we see what Freedom In Christ is not. We see what Freedom In Christ Doesn’t Look Like.

The false teachers in Colossae were teaching heresy. They were teaching a form of elitist spirituality and holiness that was found independent of Jesus Christ. It was a spirituality based on actions and rituals and traditions and putting confidence in making sure something was “done just right” rather than putting their full trust in Christ alone. They elevated their prescribed lifestyle and religious activity to the height of being definitional to the Christian faith. Anytime we attempt to do this we engage in a form of legalism and put chains on Christians that Christ already broke.

These false teachers pushed an ascetic lifestyle of rigorous self-denial and false humility including the following:

1. Abstaining from certain foods and drink.2. Insisted on a strict adherence to the celebrating of and observance of certain festivals and holy days.3. The worshiping of angels.

​This is seen clearly in what Paul describes in the 2nd chapter of Colossians.

Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day - things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17 NASB)

​These false teachers in Colossae were not any different than the Pharisees of Jesus’ day with all their rules and regulations and things that had to be done in a certain way and at a certain time. Teaching against legalism does not mean or imply that rules and moral law and submitting to what God has said in His word is wrong. No, what it means is that anything that is elevated to a test of fellowship whereby one’s acceptance by God is in jeopardy if they do not comply with a particular religious test or extra-biblical requirement is what we are to be against.

These teachers coming into Colossae were teaching all of these things and worshiping angels and claiming that it was because of this spiritual enlightenment that they were able to have these special “visions” and that the ordinary, common people would not have them unless they performed as they did.

So, what you had was a situation where these so-called spiritual elite were judging everyone else and calling their fellowship with God into question because they were not in submission or acquiescing to their legalistic demands.

Today’s world is not much different. In Christian circles today and in churches all over America there are legalistic and judgmental elitist people who demand adherence to their own prescribed way of living the Christian life or their way of doing church.

One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. ​(Romans 14:5-6 NASB)

This is not dealing with those areas of God’s Word that are clear in terms of our conduct, or how we are to act and live. This is not dealing with areas of God’s Word where He has made it clear how a church is supposed to operate or how we are to engage in discipleship, etc. This is dealing with those areas that are either not as clear or are a matter of conscience or are trivial. It is those things that these false teachers were elevating to the definitional level in terms of our acceptance before God.

Everything from how one dresses to what one eats or drinks to how they celebrate certain days or don’t celebrate certain days. There is a judgment on anything that would require a greater dependence on God than them for guidance or a prescription on how to move forward. It is the ultimate promotion of what man thinks over what God has said.

Notice once again what it says in verses 16 & 18:

Therefore no one is to act as your judge...Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize...(Colossians 2:16a & 18a NASB)

Paul tells his readers not to let those so-called spiritual elites judge or disqualify them from their freedom in Christ just because we don’t submit or follow what man thinks in the place of what God has said.

If you have Christ, if you have the Spirit of God indwelling you, then you have no need of anything less than Christ.

Paul is writing to Christians who…v.10 – are complete in Christv.11 – In Him, we received a circumcision of the heartv.12 – We died and were buried with Him and we are also united with Him in His resurrectionv.13 – He made us alive and forgave us of our sinsv.14 – He canceled out our debt

We live in freedom in Christ. We are no longer slaves of sin but slaves and bond-servants of Christ. We are free in respect to rules and law and those things which are destined to perish with use and are temporal.

If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!" (which all refer to things destined to perish with use) - in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? (Colossians 2:20-22 NASB)

​We are free to obey Christ and to grow into conformity and greater unity with Him and obey His law and not be put under a yoke of bondage by man’s standards. The problem the Colossian believers were encountering is what we see a lot of today. Too many have a man-centered theology and approach to the Christian life and to Church rather than a God-centered one.

These elitist, judgmental, legalistic types which we most clearly in fundamentalism but it is also seen in every walk of life if it is not properly dealt with. They have a “man-made” form of holiness and godliness.

These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.(Colossians 2:23 NASB)

It may appear to be wise or humble but in reality, it is Satanic because it did not come from God. It is a man-centered program that promotes self and religious agendas rather than a true Christ-centered theology that sees us further united and conformed to Jesus Christ.

The problem is that it looks so wise and may even “work” by human standards but it won’t be of any value against sin or the flesh and it won’t help you grow as a Christian because as verse 19 points out, one must be united to and held fast to the head which is Christ in order to grow. Only by being unified with Christ will we see growth.

So many Christians are sucked in by the latest self-help book or religious improvement or latest Christian fad. Many churches fail in the same regard. They will seek out or follow all of the latest church growth fads or will go the opposite way and worship the past, or resist the change required to pursue the mission and vision altogether.

Legalism and man-centered religion is so deceptive that it creeps into your life or church often times under the radar and before you know it you are going after what man thinks rather than what God has said and what is truly tragic is the greatest and fastest way to lose joy and growth in the Christian life and in a church is to ignore or refuse to submit to what God has said and rather submit to what man thinks.

These legalistic approaches, these judgmental attitudes, the elevation of the trivial above the much bigger and far more important God-centered things is a great danger to one’s Christian life and to any church. If your focus is on the trivial things then it is not on God and you will miss out on so much of what He has for you and how He wants to bless you because God will not bless disobedience.

False teachers and all false religious systems always focus on something else other than Christ. They elevate things above Christ and do not consider what Christ wants but what they want. So, in other words, it is a mindset that says, “You must worship as I do, you must use the translation that I use, you must do your service as we do or as I want, you must perform those rituals like the Lord’s Supper like I prescribe, you must eat as I do, you must drink as I do, you must live as I do.

What Paul is saying is that this is NOT HOW A CHRISTIAN OPERATES. It is not what Freedom in Christ looks like.

When a Christian or a church is focused on the trivial, when you focus on a man-centered way of thinking and operating, when you elevate that which is independent of God and is not in submission to what God has said and does not seek God above all else, even if it means that some of our traditions have to die, then what it means is you will only go as far as what man can take you.

Sadly, those who follow man and man’s ways and those who submit to the ordinances and teachings of man which may have the appearance of wisdom and growth but will only lead to a lack of joy and decline and a yoke of bondage. And what is ultimately missed by the person or church that pursues man’s wisdom over God’s is they miss out on what God can do because they are too focused on what man can do.

Have you ever considered what are the key differences between God and man? Well, other than the fact that One is the Creator and one is the created of course. Have you ever truly studied what the Bible says about the differences between God and man? ​​

​​​It may shed some light for you on man's condition and what God requires from us to enter His kingdom. It may also shed some great light for you in regards to just how great God is and how holy and perfect He is and why He alone is deserving of all glory and praise and worship and obedience.

For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire, and the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD. The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, "There is no God." - (Psalm 10:3-4 NASB)

​For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; the upright will behold His face. - (Psalm 11:7 NASB)

​Notice the contrast? So many men and women running around today think themselves to be gods or sovereign. Just look at politics, look at what is in the media, look at what is in print, look at the words and actions of men and women today. You don't see righteousness. You see sin. You don't see upright behavior. You see the boasts of a wicked heart's desire. As must as man wants to claim that he is good and that he loves and desires good things, it just isn't so. The world wants to tell you that every person is basically good and just needs the right nudge in the correct direction and they will choose God and choose to do righteousness. The only problem is that this is clearly not what the Bible plainly says about the differences between God and mankind.

Man is wicked. Man is sinful. Man's unregenerate condition is one that is enslaved to sin. These wicked boasts and the sinful desires of man's wicked heart spurns our Lord. It rejects our Lord and it is done because in the mind of the wicked and sinful heart it continually thinks that "There is no God." Why? Because man has made himself to be a god.

In contrast, the Lord is (not maybe, not could be) righteous, and it is said by the Psalmist that the Lord loves righteousness. The wicked will stand before God in judgment for their sin, but the righteous ones of God will stand before Him and behold His face in righteousness.

There is a lot more to salvation and eternal life than a "free ticket to heaven" which the Bible never describes salvation as being such. Sure, salvation is a free gift of God's grace but it did cost something. It cost God everything. Sin must be dealt with and receive the full wrath of God for it to be forgiven freely. God's wrath was poured out on sin at the cross. It pleased God to pour out His wrath on the Son in order to purchase eternal redemption for His holy ones.

But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief, if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:10-11 NASB)

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:11-12 NASB)

​​One of the biggest issues in the Christian church today is too many seek to determine truth by, "What makes me feel good?" or by "What makes sense to me?" or by "What can I understand fully?" or even worse, "What would I do?"

Emotion, our ability to understand as finite creatures, or our sense of morality is never the determiner of truth. God's Word is. So, the question to be asked should be, "What does God's Word say?" And we interpret normally for the literal truth contained.

1st the meme itself: It says, "Welcome to hell reprobate. Don't feel bad! It's not your fault. You were causally determined to be here."

I encounter so many people who think they know Calvinism or think they are experts on it and then clearly have no clue what it actually teaches based on the consistent reading and interpretation of Scripture. This meme does this exactly.

1. "Don't feel bad!" This assumes a person in hell will just "feel bad" that they are there.

2. "It's not your fault." This is satanic at best and utterly satanic at worst. Both the God-haters and the anti-Reformed crowd love to pull this one out even though it is not consistent with Calvinistic teaching. Yes, if you find yourself in hell, the Bible is clear that there is no one else to blame but yourself. To say that it is "not your fault" is a gross misrepresentation of both Scripture and Calvinism. Both teach that the unregenerate will not only be at fault for being in hell due to their own unrepentant sin but also that God did not cause it to happen to them. It was due to their own sin. God simply passes over them.

There is a HUGE difference between God doing what is necessary to save His elect and God simply passing over the non-elect. This meme demonstrates the "Error of Equal Ultimacy."

3. "You were casually determined to be here." This is a pathetic assumption of Calvinism (meme's fault, not yours). First of all, see my 2nd point about the error of Equal Ultimacy. Also, to imply or even state that God's election is casual in nature is not only a gross misrepresentation but also a complete misrepresentation of the character and attributes of God Himself. To suggest that God would do something "casually" shows an understanding of God not based on Scripture.

The Bible does not teach that man is a free moral agent. I know that man loves to think of himself as a free moral agent and Satan certainly loves for man to think that he is one but the Bible just simply does not teach this to be true.

One of the worst error-filled views not in the sense of a "test of fellowship" but just in the sense of how much it affects your overall theology is synergism. I would never say someone would have to be a Calvinist to be a Christian because it is not a foundational or definitional issue to the historic Christian faith. However, it does affect a vast amount of a person's theology, so it is vitally important to not only discuss but make sure we are consistent with Scripture, rather than twisting Scripture to be consistent with us. I will point out though that many who are anti-Reformed and anti-Calvinist love to question our salvation based on these matters but that is a story for another day.

Synergism places man in a spot where he not only should not be but also in a place he very obviously can't be in regards to revealed Scripture. Synergism teaches that man is sovereign in his salvation because as much as God may "want" to save someone, He can't unless that person "accepts" or "receives" God into his heart. This makes God reactionary and this is 100% removed from what Scripture teaches.

Man is not a free moral agent. The Bible (Rom. 6, Rom. 8, etc.) teaches that man is not only dead in his sins but is hostile (Col. 1) towards God, lacks peace with God (Col. 1), and is in slavery to sin (Rom. 6). Man is either a slave to sin or s slave to Christ. Man is born in the slave-market of sin and is in bondage to his sin. Now, while it is 100% true that man makes choice and is responsible for his choices and it is ultimately his own sin that condemns him to hell, it is also true that he is not making those choice free and independent of any influence. The only autonomous Being in the universe is the One who created the universe. God is the only One who makes choices free of any influence whatsoever.

When man is saved and regenerated, he is made alive in Christ and now has become a slave of righteousness. The spiritual war is between the redeemed and holy soul/spirit of man and the sinful humanness that he resides in until the future glorification of his body.

So, the correct view is what is called compatibilism as it is defined in Reformed Theology which is fully consistent with Scripture. God is sovereign. There is nothing that God is not in control of and there is nothing that happens that God did not predetermine either through his active decree or through His sovereign will. Man is responsible for his own choices and actions. If man does not repent of his sin and place his faith and trust in the atonement of Christ, he will remain under the condemnation of sin for all eternity and will pay for his sins in the eternal state.

The Bible teaches both God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. We will not and cannot understand how these are compatible but the Bible teaches that they both are true. Thus, they must be compatible in the sovereign will and decrees of God. While we may not understand it, we must accept and believe it because that is what the Bible teaches.

If God is not sovereign, then we can trust nothing.

Regardless of all of it, man still loves to forget one very important point: God is God and we are not. Without God, nothing would exist and the fact that He is God presupposes that He has the right to do with His creation whatever He pleases.

​With that in mind, we must seek to find and understand what God has revealed about Himself, what He has revealed about mankind, and what He has revealed about how we can be in right relationship with Him. The Bible speaks very clearly on all of these important matters.

​Mice in a house cannot be caught when you are sitting there. They will be aware of your presence, but they can be caught with a trap, even if you are not there. Satan uses traps like this. Satan does not announce himself to us as he did to Jesus. But He does, in fact, have traps laid for us and he has something to say to us, and we should have something to say to him.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1 NASB)

​Ever since the Garden of Eden Satan has been trying to lay traps for God's people. He loves when he can get us to disobey God. One of the primary ways in which he seeks to accomplish this is by questioning God's Word. It is this exact tactic that he seeks to employ when he comes to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, (Matthew 4:1-3a NASB)

​Notice that Satan came when Jesus was weakened by hunger. Satan is a lot of things but of all things, he is definitely a coward. He does not want to come and attempt to entice any of God's people to sin when we are at our strongest or our most spiritually ready for the temptation.

​He attacks and tempts Jesus in three main areas just as he does with us: The lust of the flesh, the pride of life, and the lust of the eyes. Every temptation we face in life can be narrowed down to at least one of these three categories.

1. Lust Of The Flesh (v.3-4)

And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'" (Matthew 4:3-4 NASB)

​There would not have been anything wrong in and of itself with Jesus performing a miracle like turning stones into bread. After all, He was hungry and had not eaten for 40 days. In fact, He would perform miracles involving food in His ministry but to do it now would be disobedience to God.

What Satan wanted was for Christ to be able to question why God would let Him be hungry in the first place. Satan, every chance that he gets not only wants us to question God's Word, but he also wants us to question God's character and trustworthiness. Satan, in essence, was saying to Christ, "You're hungry! Eat! Do what will make you feel better! Indulge!"​

It is at this point that Christ provides the example of what we are to do in response to Satan when he tempts us with questioning God's Word and not trusting God. What Jesus Christ does we should do also and that is quote Scripture right back at Satan. To do this will show both God and Satan and anyone else who may be watching depending on the situation, that we believe God's Word over everything else. It will show that we believe God's Word over anything Satan has to say or anyone in the world for that matter. What it will show is that we trust the Creator over anything in the creation.

All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers. You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. Thus you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. (Deuteronomy 8:1-6 NASB)

​Jesus quotes from a time when Israel was angry with God because they were hungry. They were saying they preferred food or comfort to God’s words. Jesus shows true obedience and a true trust in God by refuting the devil's temptation and putting His full trust in God and every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God over temporary comfort or satisfying a fleshly desire.

While it would not have been wrong to eat when hungry and it is certainly not wrong for us to eat when the hungry, the key here is that Satan was tempting Jesus to go against God and not trust God because Jesus was out there for a purpose which was to fast and spend time in prayer. That was what Christ's focus was on. If he had of given in to a temporary, fleshly desire, He would have been acting no different than the Israelite people did after coming out of Egypt.

2. Pride Of Life (v.5-7)

Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, 'HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU'; and 'ON THEIR HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'" Jesus said to him, "On the other hand it is written, 'YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'" (Matthew 4:5-7 NASB)

​Satan says, “If you believe every word of God then prove this one!” Satan quotes Psalm 91:11-12 and is basically saying to Jesus, “You will be a hero falling and not dying! You will have proof and vindication that you are God’s Son after all!” Satan says to us in like manner, “You deserve that promotion, recognition, etc. Do whatever it takes!”

​Jesus this time quotes Deut. 6:16 which relates account from Exodus 17:1-7 when the people were still upset and hungry said, “If you don’t provide a miracle and feed us then we won’t believe anymore!

You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah. (Deuteronomy 6:16 NASB)

Satan uses the circumstances of our lives and uses them to make us question God. ​We should not question God because He is faithful and we are not.

The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD love you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments. (Deuteronomy 7:7-9 NASB)

​The passage from Deuteronomy 7 makes it clear that God is God, and we are not. God is faithful, and we are not. God is the one who keeps His promise and His covenant, and we do not. It is because of this that we can fully trust God and have no reason to not trust God.

Satan would love to appeal to our pride and make us think that we are somehow in control, that we are somehow more important than we really are, and he certainly would love for us to do things that bring glory to ourselves rather than to God.

God does not choose us because of anything about us that makes Him "have to" choose us. No, God chooses us out of His love and because of His purposes and He is faithful to see us through and take care of us and we show that we are His people when we keep His commandments.​

3. Lust Of The Eyes (v.8-10)

Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, "All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Go, Satan! For it is written, 'YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'" (Matthew 4:8-10 NASB)

Satan says, “Bow and I will give it all to you!” Was he serious? Could he? He was bluffing. If Jesus had of bowed He wouldn’t have gotten anything. Satan wanted Him to operate on His terms instead of God’s. Satan was saying, “There is an easier way of getting the kingdom instead of dying on a cross!” “If you take the shortcut you can have it all right now!” The fact that it is a bluff makes sense because in the end if we give into Satan do we ever really end up with what we really wanted? By giving into things and what we can see like money or things, we are worshiping those things instead of God. Satan wants you to take the easy way out. He wants you to do anything except for what God wants you to do.

You shall fear only the LORD your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name. You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, for the LORD your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindles against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth. ​(Deuteronomy 6:13-15 NASB)​

​Jesus quotes Deut. 6:13-15 because Jesus, just like we should, refused to put anyone or anything over the Lord God.

​What are the results or consequences of Jesus’ example?

Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him. (Matthew 4:11 NASB)

​Then the devil left him. Jesus’ obedience is rewarded by having angels minister to Him. This doesn’t mean that Satan won’t ever come back. We must be ready. If we submit to God and quote Scripture and submit to Scripture and resist him, he will flee.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. (Ephesians 6:10-13 NASB)

​The same strength that Jesus used to resist the devil, we have that strength dwelling in us! Stand firm! Obey God rather than man. God will bless your obedience.